Thank you.
You're correct in your assessment of the somewhat complex policing structure that we have in British Columbia, in particular in the Lower Mainland. It's certainly been commented on from a number of perspectives. The rationale for moving the former program into an integrated fashion with the RCMP within the province was to somewhat break down any potential silos and create some synergies between the independent or municipal police forces and the RCMP jurisdictions.
We've had some success with that. Under the prior program, it was administered more or less through this office on a somewhat ad hoc basis, depending on the situations and upon request of the municipal agencies. By moving it into an integrated model with the RCMP under the present legislation, we created what we saw as a more consistent approach to witness protection across the jurisdictions.
I think this legislation allows us to take that model somewhat further. It allows us the potential to standardize somewhat both witness management and witness protection in these files throughout British Columbia.
I'd add that the recent report by Mr. Oppal from the missing women inquiry has added a certain amount of impetus for us to standardize and harmonize our response to major crimes and serious crime. Indeed, the legislature of British Columbia amended the police act to allow the director of police services to create binding standards with respect to complex and major crime to ensure that level of consistency both across municipal police agencies and the provincial police force.
We see this act as complementary to the creation of those standards and a standardized approach to our response to organized crime and complex and major crime.